Converting My Bike Into A Trike

When I had my stroke four years ago, it was questionable whether I would ever ride again. I learned to walk again, and then learned to drive the “cage” again. Many people told me I would have to get a trike to be able to ride again, but I said I was going to learn to ride on two wheels again first, and that is just what I did, even though it took me about three years after the stroke.

Then I started thinking about a trike, just to make things easier for me, but I was still in love with my bike that I had gradually built over the years. That is when I contacted the crew at Frankenstein Trikes. I talked to the manager Daniel Valdez by email for a while, getting ideas, price estimates, etc. I sent him a photo of my bike from a show it had won in the past, and asked if it would look as good as a trike as it did as a bike, and he assured me that it would.

I then set up a date to drop it off at their manufacturing and shop facility in Pleasanton, Kansas. I made the two hour ride from my house to their shop as my last trip on my bike as a two-wheeled machine. Daniel told me it would take several weeks to get painters to match my bike, and I told him I just needed it back in time for Sturgis. He took me on a quick tour of the facility and I left my bike parked in front of the door to their offices.

Over the next few weeks I continued to get emails from Daniel, keeping me up to date on the progress. Then about a week before Sturgis, I checked my email during lunch and there was photos of it as a trike with a note that said “Finished!” On my next day off from work I went over and picked it up. It was even more beautiful than I had imagined.

I left for Sturgis with my new trike the very next morning, and it drew attention everywhere I went, with everyone asking who did the conversion. I proudly told them, “Frankenstein Trikes!”